Instructional Design Strategies

Overview

Grade Level: 6th / 7th
Subject Area: Language Arts
Number of Students (average): 32
Years of Teaching: 3

Description

Answer the following questions as if you were giving advice to a student teacher.

How would I introduce a discussion of my approach to instructional design?			It is important to be purposeful in your instructional design in order to maximize the effectiveness of your instruction in the classroom.
What are my resources for designing units and lessons?			The primary resource for unit design is our district curriculum map. It is based on the state standards and organizes them by their priority.
What do I generally do first?			I always start with the standard I want to teach. I then think about how I want to assess that standard, asking myself "What do I want the student to know?"
How do I interact with the standards?			I interact with standards through the use of our district curriculum map, and I also try integrate the reading and writing standards whenever possible.
What are my constraints and how do I respond to them?			My biggest constraint is time, and it always seems that I run out of time. To deal with the time constraints, I design other units, or times when students will have an opportunity to practice the skill again.
How do I approach student assessment?			Student assessment is one of my most important tools. I always include formative assessments to help me monitor the effectiveness of a unit. At the end of the unit, I always want some form of summative assessment.
How do I approach post-assessment?			Post-assessment is used in two ways. The first is to help determine grades. The second is to provide me with feedback on my instruction.
How do I approach self-assessment?			Being a perfectionist, I sometimes go a little overboard with my self-assessment. I try to incorporate many forms of feedback to evaluate my instruction.
What are areas I would like to learn more about and/or become better at?			Time management remains an area that I want to improve. It is easy for me to side track when I perceive that students are needing extra scaffolding or are benefiting from my enrichment.
What final advice would I give about my approach to instructional design?			My advice in instructional design is to begin with the standard and an idea of what you want the students to know, then work backwards from there.